“Immediately the boy's father exclaimed,
"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark 9:24
I love this
scripture for a couple reasons. First, I love how absolutely honest and “real”
this father is!! I DO believe… but I know
that there is still a measure of unbelief in me… please help me Lord with that
unbelief! How many of us are truly that honest with ourselves or others let
alone with God??
Secondly, this very
real statement awakens in ME the awareness of the Unbelief I have in my own
heart. I can get pretty delusional thinking I am “all that and a bag of chips”
in the “believing” area! But when I read this heart-felt, deeply personal and
emotional plea, it resonated in my heart and mind and it makes me more aware of
my own unbelief and I too want to cry out “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief!!”
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not
believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:16
As I have been
listening to the gospels I tend to pick up on certain words each time I listen
and recently the word “believe” was my
word for the day. As I listened to Jesus’ words I had this sense that our
current understanding and definition of the word “believe” was very different
than what it meant to Jesus. He would say over and over “Whoever believes…”,
“…to those who believe…”, “He who believes…” We can so easily brush past this
word, and I have so many times, but I hear Him now imploring me to “get it”! Mostly
the context is regarding believing in HIM, believing
in His name and in the One who sent Him.
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my
word and believes him who
sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from
death to life.” John 5:24
I say I “believe in Jesus”,
and I truly do mean it, but… Do I really believe in Him the
way I need to?? The way HE is asking me to?? As I walk this journey to know
God, I find myself believing in Him more and more as I get to “KNOW” Him better…
and I can definitively say I believe in Him more now than I used to, but maybe
I don’t believe in Him as much as I think I do or need too?? We as Christians
say “of course I believe!” And we throw around the word “believe” like it is a
normal everyday common thing to say and do… easy peazy, right? But, what did
Jesus say would accompany those who “believed”?
“And these signs will accompany those who
believe: In my name they will
drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with
their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all;
they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17-18 “If you believe, you will receive
whatever you ask for in prayer." Matthew 21:22 “Everything is
possible for him who believes." Mark 9:23 “I
tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into
the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for
him.” Mark 11:23
So, after reading
these scriptures I have to seriously question if I truly do understand what Jesus
means by “believe”!! The famous line from the movie “Princess Bride”
comes to mind “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it
means.”!! I have never cast out demons, laid my hands on sick people
and healed them or cast mountains into the sea… I haven’t drank deadly poison
or picked up snakes to know if I would survive that, but I do speak in a new
tongue and I do have some prayers answered! I have that going for me… which is
nice :) But I can’t help feeling like I am still missing something very
important.
“For God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
So I decided to
look up the actual Greek word that is used for “believe” to see if there was
something more to this word than meets the eye. Unfortunately, I can’t say
there was anything profound or earth shattering in this definition. The Greek
word is pisteuō - (pist-yoo'-o) to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a
person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s
spiritual wellbeing to Christ): - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust
with. In looking at the definition of our English word I did find this
little nugget: "faith", "trust" and "believe" in English
translations all come from the same Greek root (pisteuo).
So combining these
three words; faith, trust and believe, gives the word “believe” a little more meaning,
depth and strength in my mind. Sometimes I can “believe” someone and yet not
“trust” them, but Jesus asks us to embrace all three of these aspects when we
“believe” in HIM. Is my faith, trust and belief in Him whole-hearted and
completely without doubt…?
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of
God's one and only Son.” John 3:18
If you haven’t
figured this out already, most of the scriptures posted here are referring to believing
in Jesus to receive eternal life!! This is kind of an important aspect
of believing, don’t you think?? If I really don’t “get” or understand what
Jesus means, that could put a serious crimp in my eternal well being!! I think
this is worth a deeper looksee, don’t you?!
“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.” John 6:47
Tom brought up a good point in that
we should address what it doesn’t mean. It is much more than
believing certain facts ABOUT Him!! We can believe He is born of a virgin, the
son of God, who died for our sins, and rose again but then not actually believe
“IN”
Him. If we REALLY believed not only these facts about Him, but believed in
Him, I think our lives would look very different. We say we accept them as
truth but we don’t act on them. We don’t live as though we believe them! In
the co-addiction world we are taught to believe the behavior, not the words.
Does my life and behavior reflect my words of belief and trust in Jesus??
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects
the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 3:36
For
example, let’s look at an everyday aspect of “believing” in God. God says He is
our provider and we say we believe in Him but, don’t we rely on our paycheck,
bank account, savings and retirement more than Him? We comfort ourselves by
saying that God provided all those things so that we could rely on them. But, if
we suddenly lost those things how would we feel?? I think we would be gripped
with fear and panic, right?! Where is our faith and trust now?? “OMG, how am I
going to pay the bills, put food on the table… buy gas for my car so I can get
to work!!?? Where is the money going to come from now!!??” Tom says, “It’s easy
to trust God when I have money in the bank”! But if we really believed Jesus
was our provider, there would be NO FEAR, but only trust and confidence that He
will take care of me even without a paycheck, savings and retirement! The fact
that we have fear at all in our life reveals our lack of belief in our Lord.
“For my Father's will is that everyone
who looks to the Son and believes
in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40
So here is a question.
What is He asking us to believe in? Believe in what?? In Him, His name, the One
who sent Him…? What does that even mean? Do we believe He is just a “good
person” with encouraging words? Do we believe He loves us and has good things
in mind for us? (I have learned that the word “Good” looks very different to
God than it does to me!). Or, do we believe that He is the “Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the End, who
is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."? Revelation 1:8 Can we even grasp the depth and the power of
those words!? Are they just “words” to us and not transforming “life and
truth”? Have I allowed Him to pour His heart and Life into me so much that it
pushes all doubt and fear out? Can I truly grasp who He is enough to have the
faith, trust and belief that He is asking for??
“For by him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is
before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16-17
I don’t have any answers here… I wish
I did! But I am still on this journey of growing and learning. I am writing
this blog mostly because it is a discovery of my own that I felt I needed to
personally address. Do I really understand what believing in Jesus
means? I would have to say, I don’t think so!! I don’t have any fear or anxiety
over this but I do have a desire to seek God’s face to get to the bottom of
this question: What is God’s definition of “believe” and will I allow Him to
help me get there??!!
“Jesus said to her, "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes
in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?" Yes, Lord, she told him, "I believe
that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." John 11:25
Lord, I do believe
but please help me overcome my unbelief!!
